The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans

From the Publisher

In the wake of personal tragedy, two people meet on a humanitarian mission in Peru. Christine is a shy, unadventurous woman whose fiancé broke off the engagement only a week before the wedding, and Paul is a former emergency room doctor whose glamorous lifestyle, stellar reputation, and beautiful fiancée are cruelly snatched from him one fateful, snowy Christmas Eve. Deep in the Amazon jungle, against a backdrop of poverty and heartbreak, they must confront their deepest fears and, together, learn to trust and love again.

Publishers Weekly

Author of the smash The Christmas Box and spinoffs, Evans delivers an entertaining albeit syrupy picking-up-the-pieces romance. Heartbroken and bereft when her fiance backs out a week before the wedding, Christine Hollister allows herself to be talked into a volunteer work trip to Peru by best friend Jessica so that the pair can work together in an orphanage called the Sunflower. There she meets Paul Cook, the handsome but damaged former ER doc who left the U.S. after being blamed for a series of tragic Christmas deaths on the ward. The budding romance between Paul and Christine is totally predictable (including the awkwardness of their initial meetings). Evans adds a nice dramatic touch when Jessica's newfound boyfriend is seriously hurt while guiding a group of orphanage workers through the mountains near Machu Picchu, and he has a nice feel for framing devices, dialogue and scene-pacing. Evans also puts the jungle setting to good use during the couple's "dates." Although the various references to Christmas feel gratuitous, and a sudden appearance by jilter Martin doesn't do much to make the ending harder to anticipate, the finish nonetheless remains satisfying. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Love blooms for a young American woman and an expatriate doctor during a Peruvian jungle expedition. Jilted at the altar, timid dental hygienist Christine is strong-armed into a two-week Peruvian humanitarian trip by her adventurous best friend Jessica, who reasons that Christine will get over heartbreak only by giving of herself. Once she arrives at the tiny Cusco orphanage El Girasol, whose name means "sunflower" in Spanish, Christine is absorbed in work and discovers the problems and deprivations of the developing world. She befriends a deaf girl abandoned by her parents, and grows closer to the mysterious proprietor Paul. Himself the victim of heartbreak, Paul had left behind a promising medical career in America. He ends up guiding Christine's group through the jungle to an eco-lodge, where he helps his fragile lady friend overcome her fear of spiders and teaches her to "hunt" crocodiles. And when Christine comes down with a tropical fever, Paul uses his medical skills to save the woman he has already fallen in love with. After her recovery, Christine is forced to choose between love and the safety of her former life-the prospect is much scarier than spiders. This wholesome story from Evans (A Perfect Day, 2003, etc.) boasts an amazing setting but less successful are the preachy diary entries from Paul that contradict his laconic man-of-action persona. There is also a secondary plot involving child-sex trafficking that feels undeveloped. A romantic meditation on faith, redemption and public service.

Product Details

• Reading Group Guide
• Forewords & Introductions
• Read an Excerpt

Reading Group Guide

Group Reading Guide

The Sunflower

Richard Paul Evans Discussion Questions

1. Sunflowers appear throughout the story, from the name of the orphanage (El Girasol) to Christine's wedding decorations to symbols found in the ancient Temple of the Sun in Machu Picchu. What does the image of the sunflower represent? What does it mean to Christine in particular?
2. When Martin tells Christine he no longer wants to get married, she asks him what she did wrong. Why is Christine so quick to blame herself? What did she see in Martin, a man she dated for six years and almost married? How is Paul, to whom Christine is immediately attracted from their first encounter outside the hotel in Cuzco, most different from Martin?
3. Christine and Jessica are "proof that opposites attract . . . and both women, in their own ways, envied the other" (35). How would you describe each woman? What do Jessica and Christine each bring to -- and get out of -- their friendship?
4. After Martin calls off the wedding, Jessica says to Christine, "He'll come to his senses eventually. . . . The only question is whether you'll be dumb enough to take him when he comes crawling back" (46). Yet later in the story Jessica tells Paul that Martin is Christine's "happy ending" (302). Does Jessica really mean what she tells Paul, or is she trying to prevent Christine from making what she believes is a mistake? Does Jessica have a more selfish motive for not wanting Christine to marry Paul?
5. Paul successfully weathered the simultaneous lawsuits brought against him by the families of two patients who died in the ER under his care.Why then did he give up his career as a doctor and leave the United States to travel around South America? What draws him to El Girasol and then compels him to stay on as director of the orphanage?
6. How does the three-day period Christine and Paul spend together at the orphanage lay the foundation for their relationship? When Christine leaves the orphanage with the tour group, she writes the following in a note to Paul: "You helped me in ways you will probably never know" (155). Describe the ways in which Paul helped her and how these were significant to Christine's development.
7. Why does Paul share the story of his mother, who is dying from ALS, with Christine? When Christine returns to the orphanage at the end of the story, why does she repeat to Paul the phrase ("Love is stronger than pain") that he used when telling her about his parents? How does this sentiment apply to their situation?
8. When Christine becomes sick with dengue fever, she's in a remote area of Peru with only Paul to care for her. How is this incident a turning point for Christine both personally and in terms of her relationship with Paul? What does Paul come to realize about himself and his feelings for Christine as he sees her through this illness?
9. Describe Christine's transformation from the beginning of the story to the end. In what significant ways does she change? When Christine and Paul leave Makisapa Lodge after she recovers from her illness, the walk through the jungle no longer frightens her. "She knew she was not the same woman who had marched into the jungle the week before" (283). Why is Christine not afraid this time?
10. On their last night together in Peru, Paul asks Christine to marry him. What prompts him to propose -- and Christine to accept -- after knowing each other for such a short time? What is Christine's response when she learns that Martin is waiting for her in Lima? During her reunion with Martin, what does Christine conclude about her former fiancé? Why does she return to the United States with Martin?
11. In the Epilogue, the narrator who began the story reveals that Paul and Christine have married and settled in a Dayton suburb with Pablo and Roxana. What was your reaction to finding out that Paul chose not to continue running the orphanage? What purpose does the narrator serve?
12. When Paul learns that he is to see Christine again as a result of Jim's accident, he writes in his diary, "Fate has a way of cutting corners" (195). Do you believe in fate? What role, if any, does it play in this story? If not for Jim's accident, do you think they would have seen each other again? If so, which character do you think would have been more likely to take the initiative?
13. What is the central theme of The Sunflower? What aspects of the book did you find especially memorable or inspiring? Discuss the humanitarian mission in The Sunflower. What were the success and failures? What did you learn?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. If you're hosting the discussion, incorporate a sunflower theme into the meeting. Brighten up the room with a bouquet of sunflowers. Serve a sunflower-inspired recipe from the National Sunflower Association (richardpaulevans.com for photographs and video commentary from the author about his adventures in Peru.

Forewords & Introductions

Group Reading Guide

The Sunflower

Richard Paul Evans

Discussion Questions

1. Sunflowers appear throughout the story, from the name of the orphanage (El Girasol) to Christine's wedding decorations to symbols found in the ancient Temple of the Sun in Machu Picchu. What does the image of the sunflower represent? What does it mean to Christine in particular?
2. When Martin tells Christine he no longer wants to get married, she asks him what she did wrong. Why is Christine so quick to blame herself? What did she see in Martin, a man she dated for six years and almost married? How is Paul, to whom Christine is immediately attracted from their first encounter outside the hotel in Cuzco, most different from Martin?
3. Christine and Jessica are "proof that opposites attract . . . and both women, in their own ways, envied the other" (35). How would you describe each woman? What do Jessica and Christine each bring to — and get out of — their friendship?
4. After Martin calls off the wedding, Jessica says to Christine, "He'll come to his senses eventually. . . . The only question is whether you'll be dumb enough to take him when he comes crawling back" (46). Yet later in the story Jessica tells Paul that Martin is Christine's "happy ending" (302). Does Jessica really mean what she tells Paul, or is she trying to prevent Christine from making what she believes is a mistake? Does Jessica have a more selfish motive for not wanting Christine to marry Paul?
5. Paul successfully weathered the simultaneous lawsuits brought against him by the families of twopatients who died in the ER under his care. Why then did he give up his career as a doctor and leave the United States to travel around South America? What draws him to El Girasol and then compels him to stay on as director of the orphanage?
6. How does the three-day period Christine and Paul spend together at the orphanage lay the foundation for their relationship? When Christine leaves the orphanage with the tour group, she writes the following in a note to Paul: "You helped me in ways you will probably never know" (155). Describe the ways in which Paul helped her and how these were significant to Christine's development.
7. Why does Paul share the story of his mother, who is dying from ALS, with Christine? When Christine returns to the orphanage at the end of the story, why does she repeat to Paul the phrase ("Love is stronger than pain") that he used when telling her about his parents? How does this sentiment apply to their situation?
8. When Christine becomes sick with dengue fever, she's in a remote area of Peru with only Paul to care for her. How is this incident a turning point for Christine both personally and in terms of her relationship with Paul? What does Paul come to realize about himself and his feelings for Christine as he sees her through this illness?
9. Describe Christine's transformation from the beginning of the story to the end. In what significant ways does she change? When Christine and Paul leave Makisapa Lodge after she recovers from her illness, the walk through the jungle no longer frightens her. "She knew she was not the same woman who had marched into the jungle the week before" (283). Why is Christine not afraid this time?
10. On their last night together in Peru, Paul asks Christine to marry him. What prompts him to propose — and Christine to accept — after knowing each other for such a short time? What is Christine's response when she learns that Martin is waiting for her in Lima? During her reunion with Martin, what does Christine conclude about her former fiancé? Why does she return to the United States with Martin?
11. In the Epilogue, the narrator who began the story reveals that Paul and Christine have married and settled in a Dayton suburb with Pablo and Roxana. What was your reaction to finding out that Paul chose not to continue running the orphanage? What purpose does the narrator serve?
12. When Paul learns that he is to see Christine again as a result of Jim's accident, he writes in his diary, "Fate has a way of cutting corners" (195). Do you believe in fate? What role, if any, does it play in this story? If not for Jim's accident, do you think they would have seen each other again? If so, which character do you think would have been more likely to take the initiative?
13. What is the central theme of The Sunflower? What aspects of the book did you find especially memorable or inspiring? Discuss the humanitarian mission in The Sunflower. What were the success and failures? What did you learn?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. If you're hosting the discussion, incorporate a sunflower theme into the meeting. Brighten up the room with a bouquet of sunflowers. Serve a sunflower-inspired recipe from the National Sunflower Association (www.sunflowernsa.com), such as Artichoke Sunflower Dip, Acorn Squash with Caramelized Sunflower Kernels, or Spinach & Sunflower Salad with Orange Vinaigrette. End on a sweet note by giving each member a foil-wrapped chocolate sunflower medallion, which can be purchased at www.keepsakefavors.com.
2. Take your book club on the road for a volunteer mission — an outing in your town, a weekend trip, or even a journey to a foreign locale as Christine and Jessica undertake in The Sunflower. Find out more about humanitarian vacations at the following websites:

   http://www.globalvolunteers.org/1main/volunteer_vacation.htm

   http://www.globeaware.org/

   http://www.i-to-i.com/Home.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=76&subtabindex=0&subtabid=453&ci=en-gb

   http://www.justgive.org/html/ways/vacations.html

   http://www.tjourneys.com/our%20company.htm

   Be sure to keep a scrapbook of your group's experiences!

3. Research the Peruvian locations featured in the book — Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Lima, Ollantaytambo, and the jungle of the Amazon — and discuss how the setting enhances the story. Visit www.richardpaulevans.com for photographs and video commentary from the author about his adventures in Peru.

RICHARD PAUL EVANS is the #1 best-selling author of The Christmas Box. His thirteen novels have each appeared on the New York Times bestseller list; there are more than thirteen million copies of his books in print. His books have been translated into more than 22 languages and several have been international best sellers. He is the winner of the 1998 American Mothers Book Award, two first place Storytelling World Awards for his children's books, and the 2005 Romantic Times Best Women Novel of the Year Award.  Evans received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award for his work helping abused children.  He is the founder and CEO of BookWise, an international direct sales business. Evans lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife, Keri, and their five children.

Read an Excerpt

The Sunflower

Simon & Schuster

Chapter One

Going to the jungle wasn't my idea. Had the thought actually crossed my mind, I would have immediately relegated it to that crowded portion of my brain where things I should do someday but thankfully never will are safely locked away to languish and die.

The idea was my daughter McKenna's. Three months before she graduated from high school, her sociology teacher, a graying, long-haired Haight-Ashbury throwback who had traded in his tie-dye T-shirts for tweed jackets with leather elbow patches presented to his class the opportunity to go to South America on a humanitarian mission. McKenna became obsessed with the idea and asked if I would accompany her on such an excursion -- kind of a daddy-daughter date in the Amazon.

I agreed. Not that I had any real desire or intention of going. I figured that she would soon graduate and her mind would be occupied with other concerns. I never believed it would really come about.

I should have known my daughter better. Four months later I found myself standing with her and a dozen of her former classmates in the Salt Lake City airport boarding a plane for Lima, Peru.

Unbeknownst to our little group, we had entrusted our lives to novices. We were the first group our expeditionary guides had actually led into the Amazon -- a fact we discovered twenty-four hours later deep in a jungle teeming with anacondas, jaguars and hand-sized spiders. Several times in the course of our expedition, our guide, an elderly Peruvian man, would suddenly stop, lay his machete at the foot of a tree, then climb above the jungle canopy for a look, each time descending with a somewhat perplexed expression.

After our third complete change of course I asked our guide (as tactfully as one being led through a jungle must) if he knew where he was going. In broken English the old man replied, "Yes, I have been here before..." then added, "when I was six."

During our hike we came upon the village of an Amazonian tribe, the Los Palmos. Overjoyed to learn that they were neither cannibals nor headhunters, we soon noticed that the population of the village included no young men, only women and the elderly. Our guide asked one of the natives where all the young men had gone.

"They have gone to town to kill the mayor," she replied.

"Why?" our guide asked.

"The mayor has said we can no longer cut the rainforest trees. We cannot live without the wood from the trees. So our men have gone to kill him."

"Do you think that's a good idea?" our guide asked.

The woman shrugged. "Probably not, but it's how things are done in the jungle."

There was something refreshing about her logic. I've never been overly fond of politics, and the image of painted tribesmen carrying spears and bows into town hall delighted me -- certainly something we don't see enough of in Salt Lake City. I still wonder how that all turned out.

Two days into our journey we ran out of food. For several days we lived on jungle fruit and the piranhas we caught in the river. (Piranha doesn't taste that bad -- kind of like chicken.)

I remember, as a boy, sitting spellbound through a Saturday afternoon matinee about a school of piranhas that terrorized a small jungle village. These Hollywood piranhas swam in conveniently slow-moving schools that cinematically frothed and bubbled on the surface, allowing the hero a chance to swim across the river and rescue a woman just inches ahead of the churning piranha death.

The piranhas we encountered in the jungle were nothing like that. First, Amazon piranhas are nearly as ubiquitous in the jungle as vegetation. Drop a fishing line in any jungle river and within seconds it will be bitten. Usually in half. Second, there are no warning bubbles.

Adding crocodiles, electric eels and leeches to the mix, we decided it best to just keep out of the water.

After several days of traveling we reached our destination, a small village where we established our clinic. The Quechuan natives were waiting for us.

The goal of our humanitarian mission was threefold: teach basic hygiene, fix teeth and correct vision. I was assigned to the latter. The optometrist who hiked in with us would conduct an eye examination, then hand me a written prescription for eyeglasses that I would attempt to fill from the bags of used eyewear we had packed into the jungle.

I remember one patient in particular. He was an elderly man, small featured and sun-baked, his skin as leathery as a baseball glove. And he had just one eye. As he was led from his exam to my station, the doctor handed me a blank prescription.

"What do I do with this?" I asked.

"Find the thickest lens you can find," he replied. "He's all but blind."

I knew the pair. Earlier, as I was organizing the glasses, I had come across a pair of lenses so thick I was certain they were bulletproof. I retrieved them and placed them on the little man's face. I soon learned that he had not just one eye, but also just one tooth as a broad smile blanketed his face. "!Puedo ver!" he exclaimed. I can see!

It was my daughter's job to tend the children as the doctors treated their parents. Indelibly etched in my mind is a sweet mental picture of my daughter as I looked out to see her running and screaming in mock terror from a throng of bare-chested little boys, who were laughing so hard they would occasionally fall to the ground holding their stomachs.

As we left the village, the children gathered around her and she hugged each of them. We sat together in the back of the bus, and she grew very quiet. After a few minutes I asked her what she had learned from this experience. She thought about it a moment, then said, "We love those whom we serve."

We moved on by boat up the muddy Rio Madre de Dios past the camps of the illicit gold miners scarring the forest with their bulldozers and sluices, eventually coming to a small clearing in the jungle. An airfield. Boarding a cargo plane, we flew south to Cuzco, where we took buses up into the Andes Mountains to a rundown hacienda.

The hacienda had been magnificent once, with elaborate tiles and intricate woodwork. It had a stone courtyard, a balcony and a bell tower. But the opulence of centuries ago was gone now, and what remained, rotting and looted, provided barely adequate shelter for the orphan boys it now housed. The place was called El Girasol -- the Sunflower -- and it was in the business of saving street children.

Among all the people we encountered in this mystical land, it was here that we met the most memorable: an American by the name of Paul Cook.

I was told by one of our guides that Paul Cook had once been a successful emergency room physician. Up until one Christmas Day when everything changed.

One night, after we had completed our day's tasks, we sat around a fire recounting the day's events as darkness closed in around us. Gradually our group retired to their sleeping quarters and I found myself alone with this quiet, intriguing man. We talked mostly about America; about the NBA, current movies, the Oscars and whom I thought would win the next presidential election. When I had satisfied his curiosity about current events, I asked him what prompted him to come to Peru. He just stared into the fire. Then he said, without looking at me, "That's a long story."

"No clocks in the jungle," I said.

Still gazing into the fire, he smiled at the use of one of his own favorite phrases. After a moment he said, "I'll show you."

He led me through the labyrinth of the hacienda to a small windowless cell with a wooden floor and a high ceiling. The room was as austere as any I had seen in the orphanage and was lit by a single lightbulb hanging from a cord from the exposed rafters. There were a few simple pieces of furniture: a small tin washbasin, a crate for a desk with a wooden chair and a bed that was just a mattress on box springs set on wooden blocks.

And there were books. Lots of books, visibly well-read and stacked in sloppy piles against the wall. I scanned the titles. Classics and bestsellers, Reader's Digest compilations, medical journals and crossword puzzles, biographies and thrillers. Books in Spanish as well as English. There were a few love stories.

On the wall above the books were two framed photographs: one of an elderly couple I guessed to be his parents, the other of a beautiful young woman whom I was to learn was named Christine. The most peculiar adornment to the room was a movie poster: a moody, black and indigo poster of a man kissing a woman beneath a title written in Italian: Cinema Paradiso.

Paul let me take in the surroundings for a moment before motioning for me to sit on the bed. I noticed that he had something in his hand -- a hand-sewn leather pouch. He untied its drawstrings and took from it a small toy soldier and handed it to me. Then he sat down next to me and commenced his tale. An hour or so later, when he was done, he looked weary and spent and I could sense the walls rising again in his demeanor, as if maybe he feared that he had shared too much. He restored the soldier to its pouch, hanging it by its drawstrings to a nail on the wall.

I asked if I could share his story. He showed little interest in my request but said he would sleep on it, a reply I also understood as my dismissal. Three days later, just a few hours before we were to fly back to Lima, he agreed.

It's been said, Seek not your destiny for it is seeking you. Paul Cook's story reveals, as well as any I suppose, that this is true. It was equally true for a young woman named Christine, who went to the jungle looking for anything but love.

This is their story.

Copyright 2005 by Richard Paul Evans

Continues...

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